Four-year-old boy calls police after being locked in hot car

A quick-thinking four-year-old from the US has saved his own life and that of six other toddlers by calling police after being left in a car in a mall carpark.

Seven children aged two to four were left in the car, with all the windows wound up, when their 37-year-old guardian went into the mall in Maryland, US. The four-year-old boy used a phone that was in the car to dial 911 and inform authorities that he and the other children were in danger.

The child told dispatchers he was unaware of where he was, but thankfully authorities were able to track him down using GPS signal.

Upon arrival officers, reported that the children were located “scared and sweaty” inside the vehicle, which had the windows up but the doors unlocked. After being checked out by paramedics, none of the children were transported to hospital for treatment.

The four-year-old was one of six children in the two door car. Officers reported there was only one car seat in the vehicle. (NBC News)

Officers say they are unsure as to how long they were inside the vehicle.

The boy told emergency operators the driver of the car, who was mother to two of the children and babysitting the others, had instructed them to not leave the vehicle.

Once emergency services arrived on the scene, the mother exited the shopping centre, failing to explain what she had been doing and why the children were put in danger. She was arrested at the scene.

WJLA7 confirmed temperatures had reached around 26 degrees that day, and the inside of a car can jump 10 degrees in the first 10 minutes then continue to rise.

“It is against the law to leave a child under the age of eight unattended inside a motor vehicle if the caregiver is out of sight of the child unless a reliable person at least 13-years-old remains with the child,” a statement from the Charles Country Sherriff’s office stated.

“The temperature inside a parked car can quickly rise to extremely high and even fatal levels in a short period of time.”

The woman has been charged with confinement in a motor vehicle, with potential for additional charges to come.